FamousAuthor.XXX

The dot Triple-X domains are coming!

.xxx (known as “dot triple-X”) is a voluntary option for pornographic sites on the Internet. The ICANN Board (which controls issues of domains) voted to approve the .xxx on March 18, 2011 and they opened on April 15, 2011. So, what’s the big deal now?

The TLD entered its sunrise phase on 7 September 2011, and basically anyone with a registered Trademark could get MyName.xxx domain during that time. This prevents a pornographic site from reserving Harvard.xxx and showing Harvard girls. General availability of .xxx domains begins on 6 December 2011.

Why should you care?

Book Titles.

My children’s picture book entitled 19 Girls and Me has always gotten strange hits from folks searching for lots of girls. So, you may want to reserve your domain and make sure your book’s title and your name don’t become famous on the .xxx circuit. The story is about a kindergarten class with 19 girls and one lone boy, it’s a story about gender relationships. NOT a dot Triple-X type of story at all. But the title could be twisted.

Name Recognition.
If you have great name recognition, you may also want to reserve your own .xxx domain to prevent unwanted associations.

Costly Domains
One difficulty is that a regular .com or .org or .net domain costs less than $10/year. The dot triple-x sites will be more; GoDaddy.com is currently advertising for $99.99/year, but I’ve seen price quotes of $200.

This is shady territory! But something you may want to think about!